


The Power of Sacrifice

by AnnaCipactli12



Series: Dark and Light [1]
Category: Star Wars - All Media Types, The Tudors (TV)
Genre: Angst, Complicated Relationships, Friendship, Gen, Mother-Son Relationship, Motherhood, Tragedy
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-07-07
Updated: 2017-07-07
Packaged: 2018-11-28 19:48:23
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,150
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11424933
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/AnnaCipactli12/pseuds/AnnaCipactli12
Summary: Instead of choosing Shmni to bear the "chosen one", it chose a disgraced English Princess. Seeing what her son has become, Mary makes an important decision that will be the different between eternal salvation and eternal damnation.





	The Power of Sacrifice

_"Luminous beings are we, not this crude matter."_

_~Master Yoda_

Mary stared down at the wreckage. She told her son she didn’t ask for this. He told her he had done all for her and Padme. Padme -she cursed that name. She warned her son against breaking his vows. But he had the same sickness that had taken ahold of her father.

She looked down at her hands. “I wanted you to be different. You were supposed to be different.”

“Things are going to be different now, mom. Things can be the way I want them to be. You can be Queen. The Emperor is old, I can overthrow him and then you and I can rule as mother and son.”

She looked up and met his gaze. It was the same mad look her father held after he had declared himself head of his new church. Her mother despaired for him and begged him not to leave them, but naturally, the great Henry VIII didn’t listen.

“I wish you did not have to compare me to him.” Anakin said, knowing what went through her mind. Naturally he did, they had never severed that bond, no matter how hard the Jedi tried to break it. He caressed her cheek. “I can give you everything you and grandma always yearned for.”

“I know but …” she paused. She bit her lip. She would be lying to herself if she didn’t admit his offer was enticing. But she could not turn her back on her faith. It was the only thing she had left, seeing as the child she raised was now dead. “… it cannot be like this.” Then she quoted from the New Testament: “Pay attention to yourselves and to all the flock, among which the holy spirit has appointed you overseers, to shepherd the congregation of God, which he purchased with the blood of his own Son. I know that after my going away oppressive wolves will enter in among you and will not treat the flock with tenderness, and from among you yourselves men will rise and speak twisted things to draw away the disciples after themselves.”

“You cannot have it all, Anakin. When you were born, you were my greatest joy. Everyone warned me not to have you but I told my father that I would not deny you the right to life and or hide you from the world like you were some dirty animal I was ashamed of.”

“This is not the time for your lectures, mom. I have become more powerful than I could have ever dream of. Grandmother would be proud of me.”

 _Would she Annie?_ Why was she trying to lie to herself? Of course she would. Katharine of Aragon would have sold her soul to the devil if it meant seeing her descendants in power, ruling over the dreaded concubine’s heirs.

“That doesn’t matter. You promised me that you would not turn like him and now look at you. You have destroyed everything you fought for and I barely know who you are anymore. Are you my son or are you his?”

“I am nothing like Henry VIII. I am fulfilling my destiny. I swore that I would become the most powerful Jedi and I have. I can finally make things happen. Padme turned her back on me. Don’t turn your back on me too.” At her horrified look, he softened his tone. “Please mom, I don’t want to do this alone. I need you.”

She wanted to say ‘yes’. Just say yes. No. She could not. It was too much.

She pushed him away and turned her back. The next thing she knew, she was on the floor. When she opened her eyes, Obi Wan was looking down at her. He had a pensive look on his face. He told her he and Anakin had fought but before he could deliver the killer blow, Anakin took his lightsaber and slashed his back.

Mary was sorry to hear that but she was more concerned about her son -if she could still call him that.

“Anakin survived. If he was dead, you would have felt already through your connection.” He was right, she would be the first one to know. “But, I am afraid he suffered severe injuries. The Emperor will use that to his advantage.”

 _No doubt._ She thought bitterly. In more ways than one, that man had stolen everything from her. “Where is he now?”

“He is in a medical facility in Coruscant. The Emperor has made it public that you and I have betrayed his new apprentice and he has issued warrants for our arrests.”

“What about my sister?”

“Your sister has been appointed Regent until the Emperor finds someone better.”

“You mean after he tires of her. That is how he does things, Master Kenobi. He can’t wait for Elizabeth to make a mistake so he can replace her with someone more servile. I should have done a better job with Anakin. I always taught him to be mindful. Shmni tried so hard to instill the same values but her death drove him mad.” Mary lost her voice. Shmni’s death was still a difficult topic for her.

Obi Wan sympathized. “Anakin dreamed of her. I told him dreams pass in time but Anakin insisted his dreams were real.” There was a long sigh that escaped the Jedi Master’s lips.

“If, if. The world is filled of what-ifs. We must focus on the here and now. If I had not let Anakin go, he would have never met Padme and the Jedi would not have been destroyed. If Shmni hadn’t gone to Tatooine looking for answers, she and her husband wouldn’t have been murdered and Sidious wouldn’t have dug his claws to my sons.”

“You mean the galaxy.” Obi Wan, able to be his old sarcastic self, when it came to correcting her first sentence.”

“World, galaxy. It doesn’t matter. My son is dead. You lost him when he chose Padme over the Jedi and I lost him when he chose power over me.”

“There is still hope.”

“How can there be? The Jedi prophecy spoke of the chosen one who would bring balance to the Force. I wanted to believe that he was the second coming but I guess we were both wrong.”

“No, you have to trust me, my lady. There is still hope.”

Mary wished she could believe him. At one point in her life, she would have but not after what she’d seen. Determined not to see a woman of faith lose it, he took her to a sterile room where he showed her two babies in a single crib. He read them their names from the Alien signals inscribed on it.

“Luke and Leia. They are your grandchildren.”

Her grandchildren. She approached them. They slept soundly, hugging one another, oblivious as to the horrors that were taking place.

“They are the galaxy’s last hope.”

She asked what would become of them. “Separated they must be.” Yoda answered. The little green mite came into the room, grasping his cane tightly. He sensed Mary’s discomfort, he explained that it was best so their father and the emperor wouldn’t be able to sense them.

“I will take Luke.”

“No. Too close to your son you still are. Separated they must be … You … in hiding you must go as them.”

Mary refused to leave them alone but after much discussion she agreed. She kissed each of their foreheads, remembering of when she had done the same to their father.

That was the last time she saw them. When she saw their father again, he came in the form of a masked master, clutching a red lightsaber.

He was the image of horror. The devil himself would not have come up with a better disguise. She sunk to her knees and looked towards the heavens. If this was the end, then so be it. It was as God had ordained it.

_**~o~** _

They say that nothing in the universe is extinguished. It is simply recycled. Luminous beings are we after all, and when our bodies die, it is just the crude matter that dies. Our light is reborn into a new body, or added to the almighty Force.

When Mary woke her eyes for a second time, she found herself in the palace she had grown up in. In front of her was her parents’ portraits. In between them was a red haired child wearing a Green flat hood. Her dress was velvet green as well with her fur sleeves the color red. She was wearing a silver brooch with white figures in the middle. These were the Tudor colors, green, white and red. The colors that formed part of her grandfather’s banner, when he invaded England and defeated Richard III’s armies. It marked the beginning of a new era for England and the world.

She touched the oil painting. The painting was fresh but it was a mere illusion.

 _None of this is real._ It could not be. But it feels so real. She was here yesterday. Playing with her cousin Meg Douglas, teasing Frances and Eleanor on their ridiculous new dresses. Her mother was chasing them, telling them to get back inside before Cardinal Wolsey surprised them and told them that the King had a delightful surprise for her.

 _If you wish hard enough, it could be real._ She heard a voice say. “Yes, it could.” She responded. “But that would be buying into the same lie that my son fell for.”

I thought you didn’t love your son anymore.

“How can you think that? I will always love him. He might have struck me down but he is still with me. He will always be with me until the end of times.”

That is a sweet sentiment but you as well as I, know that the two of you can never be together.

“Do not be so sure. My Ani is resilient and one day, maybe not today or in a thousand years, but one day surely, we will see each other again.”

The Force wasn’t done with her and when it told her to close her eyes and open them again, she found herself in a different place. Her body was in one peace. Nothing had changed except her hand. It was bloodied and reeked like when she had first seen her son as Darth Vader.

It didn’t hurt her though. She felt light as a feather. A sound came from behind. In came her son, dressed in the same dark robes but when he took off his helmet, he revealed a handsome -yet older- version of his younger self.

“Mother.” His voice sounded so natural. Mary got up. She touched his cheek with her bloody cheek. This was real.

“How?” She asked. He smiled then gave her the same answer like when they first confronted each other after he had turned to the dark side. “I told you, our bond is stronger than any force in the universe.”

Mary did return his smile this time. The two embraced. Obi Wan was right. His offspring were the galaxy’s greatest hope, but they had also been wrong about Anakin. He was still the chosen one, and if he wasn’t then she had just condemn herself to hell by accepting his offer. So be it. She would rather spend an eternity in hell than a lifetime in heaven away from her son.

* * *

Mary had been lost to them. “No,” Master Yoda answered the ghosts of his late peers. “Hope, there is still is.” And with that, their worries were silenced.

Master Yoda had always been wise and although the future had been clouded by the Sith, the little green Jedi still saw further than any Jedi that came after him.

“Give up, we must not.” He added then went back to his hut.

“Obi Wan will not agree. The lady Mary could reveal where his grandchildren are.”

Yoda made a disgruntled sound. “She will not.” He stressed then told him why.

“We are still taking a big risk. If she will not tell him, the Emperor will force her to reveal the truth to him.”

“Blinded by arrogance, Sith are. Pry into her mind, he will not.” As far as Anakin and everyone knew, Padme Amidala and her unborn offspring had died. Mary’s love for her son was great, but the love she bore to her other flesh and blood was greater.

“She is condemning herself to a life of unhappiness.”

“Make our own destiny, we do. Always in motion the future is. Chosen her path, she has.” Master Yoda and Qui Gon suddenly understood.

Love was what had torn the galaxy apart, and it was what would now save it. “Underestimate the power of sacrifice, you must not. Joy in suffering there is. The end, this is not.”


End file.
